Tuesday, February 28, 2017

The Follow-Through Challenge: Caesar and Nine-Year-Old Jahkil

Jahkil Jackson

Caesar, not as in “Caesar’s Palace” in Las Vegas, but
Caesar, as in Julius
Caesar, the man, was truly an amazing individual. If he were alive today, I
sincerely believe he’d be the most successful man on the planet, for one simple
reason: the dude had incredible follow-through. Whatever he promised his
legions, the people of Rome, or his friends, that he would do, he did. Period.
Despite an avalanche of apparently unsurmountable challenges, he always came
through.

Why on earth, you ask, should this matter to me, here and
now?After all, Caesar has been dead for
over 2000 years, and our world is vastly different from his. True. But I have
learned a lot from his example, from his dedicated, passionate, unstoppable
follow-through.

Namely, that goal-setting isn’t enough. You see, most of us
are great at goal setting. Isn’t that what we do every New Year’s when we put
forth those resolutions? They’re really just a set of goals. And don’t we (I!)
too often find the same goals making their way onto our New Year’s resolution
list year after year? Boring! Wouldn’t it be a whole lot more satisfying to
accomplish those goals so you could set new ones in the following year?

I have a friend I dearly love, who has been telling me for
the past 5 years that he’s going to write a book. A story near and dear to his
heart, one I now know so well I think I could almost write it for him – and yet
it never makes its way onto a page. He has his goal! To write his book. What he
hasn’t got, is Caesar’s gift for follow-through.

Follow-through isn’t complicated, but it does take two
primary characteristics: passion for your goal, and the persistence to see it
through. A fantastic example of someone who has demonstrated phenomenal
follow-through is a nine-year-old boy in Chicago, Jahkil Jackson, who when he saw the plight
of the homeless, decided to do something about it.

What struck Jahkil is that homeless people didn’t even have
the wherewithal to start their day, so he created “Blessing Bags,” filled with toothbrushes, toothpaste, socks, soap,
deodorant, the ordinary self-care things we all need. Jahkil personally
distributes the “Blessing Bags” from the back of his godfather’s pick-up truck,
a truly hands-on young man. Since February of 2016, when Jahkil started his
adventure in giving (at age eight!), he’s distributed over 2000 “Blessing
Bags.” His goal is to distribute 5000 by the end of this year.

Now, 2000
“Blessings Bags” didn’t appear by magic. It took a whole lot of planning,
thinking, creativity, reaching out to resources, figuring out all the
what-how-who-where-when. In a word, follow-through. And yes, Jahkil is the
prime mover in this. The goal was/is huge! Most of us, myself included, would
be daunted by all that it takes to bring such a project to fruition. It took
disciplined, consistent effort – supported and nurtured by Jahkil’s ardent
desire to do good where he believed it could make a real difference. Caesar
would be proud.

I invite you to a challenge – the follow-through challenge.
I invite you to select a goal, any goal, large or small, that you can feel
truly passionate about, and then I invite you to invest your heart and soul
into it, to persist! To figure out the steps to getting there, to prioritize
the steps, to set deadlines for yourself, to find the resources, to make the
effort, to keep going when the going gets tough. To surround yourself with
people and thoughts which inspire you, to keep your enthusiasm high when it
flags – as it will and does for all of us, even the most successful.

In other words, I challenge you to prove to yourself that
you can achieve your goals! And oh, what
fun you will have when you do!

About Me

I'm a psychologist, consultant and speaker who has authored over a dozen books, all of which focus on empowering individuals to be happier, healthier and more successful at work, at home and in relationships. The power of appreciation is the theme that runs through all my books, the latest being "Happy Healthy...Dead: Happy Healthy…Dead: Why What You Think You Know About Aging Is Wrong and How To Get It Right.” If you'd like to know more, please visit www.noellenelson.com!
Thank you.